Murray-Darling Basin: Unprecedented letter from community advisors sent to Canberra to try save plan

Community committee members are pushing for a key piece of legislation on the Basin Plan to pass.

ABC News: Sarah Clarke

An apolitical, community advisory group in the Murray-Darling Basin has taken the unprecedented step of writing to politicians asking for its support in a key piece of legislation which will decide the future of the basin plan.

The plan hangs in balance with state governments angry after Federal Labor sided with the Greens and Victorian crossbench senator Derryn Hinch to block parts of it put before the Senate.

With another important vote looming, one group which was formed under the original legislation for the basin plan is coming off the sidelines to beg for support.

The concern from the group comes after a piece of legislation aimed to get the same environmental outcome for the plan, with less water in the northern half of the Murray-Darling — the Northern Basin Review — was blocked a the last minute in Federal Parliament.

Federal Labor sided with the Greens and Victorian crossbench Senator Derryn Hinch on a disallowance motion which rejected the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's work.

That was immediately condemned by the Victorian Labor government and the New South Wales coalition government.

On May 8 it is expected another key vote will come before the Federal Parliament.

This time the vote will be on a similar plan for the southern Murray-Darling.

The 'sustainable diversion limits adjustment', a plan for works to make the river flow better and maximise the use of environmental water, would reduce the amount of water taken for the environment by 605 gigalitres.

This group believes the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is on track, and for it to exist this vote must pass.

"We are concerned that it will destroy too much of what is necessary for the good implementation of the plan," Mr Treweeke said.

The group was so concerned at the state of the Basin Plan that each member of the plan self-funded a trip to meet and draft the letter.

"We met at Sydney airport. It was at our own expense. It was a meeting of the committee that was not funded in anyway by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority," the Basin Community Committee's chair said.